Chasing a Butterfly
by Diary-chan
Summary: A collection of one-shot moments in the life of Kagome and InuYasha's baby. Possible fluff. Discontinued until further notice.
1. Crimson Blanket

**A/N: A collection of moments from the child and adulthood of Kagome and InuYasha's baby girl. Enjoy the adorability and possible fluff 3**

_Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or its characters._

_**Chapter One: Crimson Blanket**_

A round, tiny face peeked out, fleshy and pink. The tiny blue eyes were shut, sleeping peacefully with amazingly tiny breaths that seemed to be all that was needed. Her eyes would later change color. Wisps of dark, slightly wavy hair were silky to the touch, sticking up at odd angles that only baby locks were capable of. The skin, aside from its pink coloring, was soft to the touch and smooth. No more wondering where the phrase 'smooth as a baby's bottom' came from. Tiny pink hands, tiny pink fingers grasped the edge of the fabric that engulfed the little bundle of joy. So small! So fragile! So soft!

So beautiful in every way.

InuYasha stared down at his newborn daughter, his amber eyes wide and unblinking, unwilling to miss a moment. Afraid that if he looked away for just the smallest of seconds, she would be gone. Afraid that he was dreaming and not looking down at the infinite source of wonder in his arms, pondering how he, of all creatures, could have fathered something so beautiful and fragile.

He was careful, oh so very careful, with the nameless newborn. Despite the crimson armor that wrapped the tiny girl in a bundle, armor that had come off his own back and that had saved his life countless times, he still was careful to cradle her in the crook of his left elbow, only letting his white-shirted forearm and palms touch the new addition. Once again he looked at his claws. Claws that were meant for destruction and maiming and killing - not cradling fragile newborn baby girls. Once again InuYasha felt the worry tug at his heart, the fear that he would accidentally hurt his daughter - but the wonder and joy of holding, touching the creature was too much a pleasure for him to give up just because he didn't trust himself.

Taking in once again her round cheeks and nose and delicately lidded eyes, he decided it had been worth it.

Worth watching the love of his life scream in agony while he was powerless to stop the thing that was hurting her so much; worth all the blood that had escaped. Worth all the months he had had to be so extra careful - with her, with enemies, with the traveling, with everything. Worth walking on all those eggshells. And definitely worth the loss of his fire rat haori coat to protect the kid like this. Worth the endless wailing and sleeplessness and responsibility that was to come.

Worth everything he - they - had gone through to bring his baby girl into the world. Because she was beautiful and wonderful and already, InuYasha could feel himself falling in love with his baby girl. He had wondered what it would be like to experience this 'fatherly love' thing; it wasn't like the way he loved Kagome, or the way he used to love Kikyo, or even the way he loved his friends: Shippo and Miroku and Sango. Here was yet another person he would willingly give his own life for.

And she was only an hour old.

"Mm," came a whispered groan. Reluctantly, his eyes were drawn from the baby to the weary, smiling face of the woman he loved. Her warm sepia eyes met his liquid amber ones, but then, in unison, they both looked down upon the little, slumbering red bundle in his arms.

"She's beautiful," Kagome whispered hoarsely, voice consumed with loving awe. She extended her tan arms a bit, gesturing her desire to hold the thing she had just given birth to an hour ago, having woke up from the exhausted nap she had been taking.

Reluctantly, InuYasha gave the baby one last look before relenquishing her to the arms of her mother. And he froze. Something about the image before him. Kagome was looking down on the sleeping baby and it seemed like the rest of her world was fading away, but he didn't mind. It was an amazing sight: the bedraggled and weary young woman cradling a baby in her arms, and looking down on it with such incredible love that made him feel like an obselete parent already. It didn't matter that Kagome was a mess and that the newborn child was wrapped in the color of blood: it was still a beautiful picture. He took a picture in his mind to save for a rainy day.

Kagome tore her gaze from the bundle in her arms and met his eyes again.

"What should her name be?" she asked in a whisper, now in an attempt not to wake the baby.

He considered it for a minute, then with the return of a familiar, triumphant smirk, he said: "Cho."

"Cho?" asked Kagome incredulously. "Butterfly?"

InuYasha started to give an explanation, talking to his wife but looking at his daughter. "Butterflies... are beautiful," he said quietly, but continued. "And they're happy. And they spread life, and hope, and... and butterflies're loved."

The raven-haired, bedraggled young woman looked gently on her husband. "That's unlike you. I would've expected something more..."

InuYasha looked at her. She shook her head. "Never mind. Cho it is."

Just then, a bouncing kitsune burst through the door flap of the hut.

"I couldn't wait any longer!" cried Shippo. At the hiss to shut up from InuYasha (more like the hanyou Kagome knew), the fox boy quietly tiptoed over to the young woman and the mysterious, tiny, pink thing in her arms. "Kaede said it was a girl," commented the fox, to which Kagome nodded as InuYasha watched.

"Her name is Cho," whispered Kagome, first kissing the baby's head and then Shippo's, who was intent on the red-wrapped bundle

The green eyes peered happily and solemnly at the sleeping baby, whispering to it.

"Hiya, Cho," said the little fox quietly, the excitement in his whispered voice as apparent as the sparkle in his big eyes. "I'm your big brother. I won't let anything happen to you."

Looking at them, InuYasha supposed Shippo was right. After all, Kagome and the kitsune had pretty much adopted each other as family. So maybe his dream of being a big brother - of having a real family - had indeed come true.

After a while, Miroku and Sango made their way in as well to ooh and ah over the newborn baby girl.

_Feh,_ InuYasha thought, eyeing his friends - especially Akira, Sango and Miroku's two-year-old boy and the demon slayer's large belly, _at least we're not the only ones with a lot of work ahead._


	2. Fake Tears

**A/N: Yay! The baby with the sappy name is baack!**

_Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original InuYasha characters._

_**Chapter Two: Fake Tears**_

A healthy baby girl sat in a plastic high chair, white tray and legs with a teddy-bear patterned cushion on the seat. A plate of ramen noodles sat, undisturbed, in front of her. She wore a white, pink-edged bib that was unstained over a baby blue T-shirt that said 'Cutie' and a layered pink skirt. Her eyes were a mix of amber and sepia, forming a bronze look containing both the liquid, metallic quality of her father's golden gaze and the warm expressiveness of her mother's chocolate one. Her face had lost much of the roundness made up of baby fat, but her cheeks were rosy and healthy and her little pink lips, which would sometimes open to reveal the sharp incisors that were growing in her mouth, were now closed. One of said incisors rested, comfortably clipping her bottom lip. The child was not affected much by baby lard that plagued other infants' bodies, instead being strangely healthy but lean. Her hands rested, idle, on the plastic white tray, pointed nails that had evaded all attempts at clipping capping the fingers. Her hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, already having a nice mane of raven-colored locks reaching mid-back. Hair that was black, but had the thick, silky quality of her father's. Because the little girl's hair was up, it revealed her ears – human, but slightly pointed in a vaguely elfen style that could pass for human with little difficulty.

The baby seemed out of place with her modern plastic and pastel-colored clothes. The walls were wood and the roof was thatched, but plush lazy chairs lay around the fireplace of the relatively roomy house. The table in front of the little girl was made up of two parts and had a tiled surface. Well-worn rugs decorated the dirt floors, and well-crafted shelves were lined with photos and mementos. The whole house was a mix-and-match of furniture from both the future and the Sengoku Jidai.

Two-year-old Cho watched with an enthralled-but-unhappy expression on her healthy face as her bronze eyes looked at the scene before her.

"You can't just give her ramen every day, InuYasha! Ever since she got off the baby food, every meal I've asked you to make her has been ramen, ramen, ramen!" cried an angry, raven-haired young woman whom her daughter looked much like. Kagome was dressed in a modern getup of sweatpants and a baby-tee similar to her daughter's, her hair pulled into a ragged ponytail this time at the base of her neck. The miko had always preferred clothes from her time, even though she spent most of her days in the Sengoku Jidai.

"Feh, why not? I have ramen every day," retorted an equally ruffled young man. His silky silver hair fell past his waist, his golden gaze reflecting much like his daughter's. A fang clipped his lip in the same fashion as Cho's, and his hands, hidden in the sleeves of his crimson kimono, were tipped with claws that were even sharper than his baby's. His outfit was more common in their time, a pair of hakamas and a haori coat, both crimson and woven of the hide of the fire rat. InuYasha glared at his wife.

"Yes, but just because _you_ don't need a variety of nutrition doesn't mean a growing, mostly-human baby doesn't! You only started eating that horrible instant stuff once I came along. You weren't a growing baby then!"

"Key, what's all the fuss about 'vitamins' and 'nutrition'? 'S'all ya ever talk about when the kid eats."

"Because for _her_, it's important!"

The couple kept on yelling at each other. They fought over the littlest things! Honestly, Cho didn't mind the taste of ramen. In fact, she quite liked it, as she proved by cleaning her plate every time her father fed her--unlike times when her mother deigned to try and give her the awful-tasting vegetables and such. This was something InuYasha frequently gloated over, and since the hanyou became even more of a handful to deal with when he was proud and puffing his feathers like a peacock, it was no wonder Kagome was often pushed towards yelling at him. But somehow they always worked it out.

In truth, Cho had no idea what they were talking about. She only recognized some words in the conversation, and her parents were spitting retorts at each other so fast that the baby could hardly even catch those.

All she knew was that she didn't like the noise. She didn't like the expression on each of her parents' faces when they were angry. And what was more, when the two were fuming at each other, they tended to neglect Cho. All reasons why the baby hated it when they fought.

"Yeah? Well-"

Suddenly a shrill wail pierced the air of the roomy cottage, and both the hanyou's and the miko's face turned to the screaming toddler two yards away from them in a plastic high chair. Immediately the yelling between the spouses ceased, and even if they hadn't, they would have been drowned out by the sound of the fake tears Cho was crying.

Cho's face had crumpled into a red, tear-streamed creation that was definitely not pleasant, especially compared to the smiles and the happy giggles she was capable of unleashing. Heart-rending cries of agony issues from her throat. Honestly, the little girl was putting on a great show.

Immediately Kagome moved over to her daughter, cooing and humming quietly to the little girl in an attempt to calm her down.

For a while after being lifted into her mother's arms and snuggled into submission, InuYasha hovering behind the miko's shoulder and feeling helpless as he did whenever his wife cried, Cho kept up the act of being unconsolably hurt. Truth was, she enjoyed attention more than anything else. Reluctantly, she pretended to calm down and eventually her sniffles quieted under the endless hushing of Kagome.

The miko set her back in the high chair, sighing and putting her hands on her hips. Kagome tried again to figure out what had been causing the baby's unhappiness, but seeing as Cho had a dry pull-up, had woken up only an hour ago, had eaten all the ramen off her plate, and had a half-empty juice bottle, she could come up with little explanation. Oh, well—the child had a habit of bursting into tears randomly, especially when they were fighting.

It occurred to neither InuYasha or Kagome that her fake tears weren't caused by basic needs, but by them.


	3. Child's Play

**A/N: I'm less than proud to say that no one is probably reading this, but hey! I'm updating anyway.**

_Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha._

_**Chapter Three: Child's Play**_

It wasn't like he really couldn't find her.

InuYasha, failing to wipe the knowing smirk off of his pretty hanyou face, sniffed again. Not that he needed to.

The trampled path through the sparse area of wood she was allowed to be in already pointed to exactly where she was. And if that didn't do it for him, fits of unstoppable giggles were magnified by the pointy, snow-white ears ears that flicked to and fro on his head, sprouting from his mane of silver locks. His seemingly normal nose twitched, indicating that her scent was not hidden from his scrutiny, either; she had her own unique scent, one that he adored not only because she was who she was. It was a lovely thing to smell: the tantalizing aroma of roses, sugar, and subtle mint. He knew that it had nothing to do with the soaps she used. And on top of that, a signature glossy black head poked out from the top of a rock, bobbing up and down constantly and shaking to the rhythm of the giggles.

The most beautiful girl in the world, the one whom he loved from the bottom of his heart but would never admit, was hiding from him, and he was looking for her.

Then why in the world did he hesitate, pacing across the clearing and loudly making his presence known, taking the time and precautions to look in every spot besides the one large rock, behind which he knew her to be.

With the grin he saved only for her, he stared up into the branches of a thick tree, faking puzzlement as he knew she watched him avidly.

"She ain't up the tree…" he announced for all to hear. "But I looked everywhere by now. Where the he-" he caught himself, "Where in the world could the kid be?"

With that, InuYasha paced to the center of the clearing and thumped down on his red-clad rear, crossing his legs and folding his arms into his fire rat-hide kimono. This charade was hard to keep up, especially because of the smirk that was ever-present on his face, a fang clipping his lip as he used the peripheral vision of his golden eyes to view the boulder. Another giggling fit emanated from the smooth rock.

"Da-… Darn," InuYasha almost-cursed. Kagome had told him to shut it up with the curses around the kid, and he had grudgingly agreed. Not that anyone could hear him out here, but if his daughter toddled back to the house repeating his colorful language, his wife would have his head – and his back, if she decided to make use of the purple prayer beads that still hung around his neck. He winced as he remembered the last time it had happened, and now Cho had the 'f' word stuck in her vocabulary. The hanyou's spine still had not recovered from the multiple 'sit's she had bestowed upon him for teaching her such a word. At least Cho lacked the power to use the Beads of Subjugation. He continued. "Keh. Thought I looked everywhere! 'S no where else t'look!"

After this was said, InuYasha knew that all he had to do was wait.

The giggles multiplied tenfold, and continued without gap until InuYasha was worried that the head of raven hair behind the rock was going to explode.

Which, in a way, it did.

Leaping from the cover of the rock, a little girl launched into the air, her cheeks red and her mouth open in a wide grin, laughing still jerking her middle and pouring from her mouth. Her thick, black hair, which fell to her waist now, was loose, the choppy bangs in the front falling in front of her metallic, warm, liquid bronzed eyes, with oddly-shaped sidebangs present as well, framing her oval-heart-shaped face. Her skin was tan from the summer sun, and her cheeks were ruddy and healthy, her pink lips stretched wide in the smile that split her face; her teeth were all grown in, straight, with overly long and sharp canines. Her heighth now perhaps reached three-foot-one, and she was lanky and lean. Arms outstretched as she sailed through the air, much higher than a human toddler could have jumped, impossibly tough, sharp, pointed nails capped her soft, delicate digits. Her feet were bare, with similarly capped toes, already showing callouses and not sporting one bruise or cut for all the time she went running around without footwear. She was wearing a light yellow tank top with a rubber duck image on it, and miniature cargo shorts for pants.

"Feh!" cried the four-year-old, another habit picked up from her sire. "Daddy! DADDY! I'm right here, see? Right behind that rock!"

Snagging his daughter just as she was about to stick the landing, InuYasha pulled her close. "Keh, you just got lucky, this time, kid," he told her fondly as Cho let out another set of giggles. Setting her in his lap, InuYasha proceeded to mess up her raven hair, to which she protested profusely but laughingly. He was no longer afraid to touch his daughter; he trusted himself. Besides, she was still a quarter demon, and she knew he could easily withstand any accidental brushes she might have with his claws, for which he was grateful.

As InuYasha finished rustling his daughter's locks, he froze and an evil glint came into his liquid amber eyes.

"Hey, kid," he said fondly, catching Cho's attention as she attempted to comb her hair with her fingers, looking up at him with those molten bronze eyes.

"What, Dada?" she asked innocently. InuYasha almost felt bad about what he was about to do.

Almost.

"Guess," he told her, willing to put more anticipation into her little mind.

"_What_?!" cried Cho. She _hated_ guessing games. They made her too excited.

"_I _think," he stated, baring an evil, fang-clipped grin, while his daughter's eyes widened in horror as she stared up at him, then trying to scramble away but held in place by his firm hands, "I think that the tickle demon is trying to visit…"

"NO! NOO!!" screeched the girl, struggling with hysteric laughter and trying futilely to push away his grip. "_NO_!"

Unfazed at Cho's acting skills or the feigned fear he saw in her eyes, InuYasha continued as he gave the least intimidating growl/"roar" that he could muster. "Grahh!" was the end result, which he shouted as the screams of his child became even more frantic. He held her abdomen in place with one hand while dragging his clawtips as gently as possible up and down her torso. Immediately she started kicking, laughter choking out most of her words as she flailed in the iron grip.

"Ahahahahahaahahahaha… no… tehehehehehehee! Dadd-HAHH… HAHAHA!"

Oblivious to the girl's screeched, breathless pleading, after a few moments and after he deemed that she was literally 'tickled pink', or red as it appeared more, he stopped and let the girl leap out of his grasp. Promptly she collapsed into the thick, lusch grass and panted, her tongue lolling as she tried to catch her breath after the nonstop tickle attack.

As soon as she caught her breath, Cho sat up straight and faced her father with the most deadly glare she could muster.

"Giving me the evil eye, are ya? Keh," he smiled, sneering at her.

Her scowl, so much like her father's, with eyebrows knit and dipped into her eyes, only deepened.

"You!" she cried, an arm snapping up to point directly at InuYasha's red clad chest. "You… tickled me!"

As this seemed to genuinely horrify the child, who had somehow inherited the same sense of pride as her father, he played along.

"He-" he caught himself again, stopping short. "… ck. Heck yeah, I did, kid! Feh. Can't even handle a tickle, can ya?"

"Can too!" argued the raven-haired toddler, crossing her arms over her chest in a miniature imitation of himself. InuYasha smirked more deeply.

"Oh yeah?" he asked, getting to his feet as Cho realized what he was doing and scampered to her own. "Prove it!"

As she let out another, abnormally high-pitched squeal and giggle, Cho set off for a chase, running in circles around the clearing as fast as her short legs could carry her, which was pretty fast considering her age. Giggles bubbling out of her lungs the entire time. InuYasha could only smile that special smile reserved only for her, then chase after her. His strides were short and exaggerated, giving the illusion of him running as fast as he could. After a while, he slowed down, faking a pant, and then collpased very extravagantly. On his way down, he strategically hooked his fingers gently around Cho's ankle, bringing her down as well with a little squeal. Careful to catch her before she hit the ground, he pulled her to sit on top of his chest, propping up on his elbows to look at her and the laughs that escaped both her mouth and her eyes.

For a silent moment he stared at her in awe, during which she looked questioningly at him with those bronze eyes, asking why he was frozen and wondering when she would get his reaction.

Finally, he said, "Feh, Gotcha."

"Keh!" cried the girl, folding her arms angrily over her chest, though the one word contained secret pleasure. "Daddy cheated!"

"Cheated, huh?" InuYasha asked, feigning hurt though he was really quite amused.

"Yeah!" Cho agreed enthusiastically, oblivious to the fake pain written across his face. A mischevious look caught in her liquid bronze eyes, and a fang clipped her lip as a devious plot formed in her mind. "And Dada?"

"What?" asked InuYasha, though he already knew what his daughter was plotting.

"Guess!"

"Keh."

As if that had been the answer she was waiting for, Cho slid off of her father and onto the grass, already taking off towards the village. "_I'm_ gonna tell Mama!"

Springing up after her, InuYasha chased. "Ho, no, you ain't; not if I c'n stop it!"

And with that, the father and daughter ran down the wildflower-strewn hill and into the village, racing to be the first to tell their side of the story to Kagome.


End file.
